Anti-Serb sentiment

Serbophobia (Serbian: србофобиjа / srbofobija), also called anti-Serbism means a sentiment of hostility or hatred towards Serbs, Serbia, or Republika Srpska. Its use in the English language has been limited.

Use of the term in history

The term was sometimes used without malign overtones in the literary and cultural circles even before World War I; Croatian writers Antun Gustav Matoš and Miroslav Krleža had casually described some political and cultural figures as "Serbophobes" (Krleža in the 4-volume "Talks with Miroslav Krleža", 1985., edited by Enes Čengić), meaning that they perceived an anti-Serbian animus in a person's behavior.

In contrast, the modern concept of Serbophobia was, according to scholars such as political scientist David Bruce Macdonald,[1] constructed in the late 1980s as part of the wave of Serbian nationalist propaganda that was led by Dobrica Ćosić and Slobodan Milošević.

A key example of this use of the term in the 1980s was the meeting, which was organized by the Serbian Writers' Association on February 28 1989 and was devoted to the theme of "Serbophobia". The meeting discussed the Croatian genocide of Serbs, including references to the Jasenovac concentration camp. This and other events were part of the movement for a "unified Serbia", which was one of the elements leading to the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.

Since then, Serbophobia has also been mentioned e.g. by Danon Cadik, Chief Rabbi of Yugoslavia et al. in the open letter to the American Jewish Committee in 1995 during the bombing of the Army of Republika Srpska by NATO in Operation Deliberate Force, whose objective was to undermine the military capability of Bosnian Serbs during the Bosnian War.

Forms and examples of alleged Serbophobia

According to those who use the term, Serbophobia can range from individual hatred to institutionalised persecution.

In particular, the term is used to refer to the position that the whole Serbian nation is guilty of the crimes committed during the Yugoslav wars, as was interpreted by the Serbian media response to a New York Times article published on April 1, 2001, headed: Milošević Is Accused, but All of Serbia Is on Trial.
One of the most known manifestations of Serbophobia is the denial of war crimes committed against Serbs in Bosnia (1992-1995) and Croatia (particularly during Operation Storm in 1995).
At the same time, Serbophobia is claimed to manifest itself in the behaviour of Western as well as Balkan media, which have supposedly created an illusion that the Serbs started the Yugoslav wars, that they are the aggressors and the only guilty ones.
Serbophobia is often claimed to be particularly widespread among Croats, Bosniaks and Kosovo's Albanians as a reaction to alienation of Serbs during the wars with those ethnic groups.
Serbophobia has been claimed to occur in many Hollywood movies including: Behind Enemy Lines and Harrison's Flowers, where the Serbs are the bad guys, raping and torturing everyone in their way.
An early example of Serbophobia is the jingle Alle Serben müssen sterben (All Serbs Must Die), which was popular in Vienna in 1914 ^[1] (also occurring as: Serbien muß sterbien).
Other examples of Serbophobia can, according to some, be found in language used to refer to Serbs by other groups in the Balkans. For example, the word shkije in the Albanian language is a derogatory word for Serbs [2]. The term "Vlah" was used in a similar fashion by Bosnian Muslims during the Ottoman rule (1459-1878) ([3]). The same word has also been used by Croats ([4]). The term "Cigan," meaning Gypsy, is also a popular derogatory word for Serbs among Croats. That use of the term "Vlah", as well as the use of the word "Chetnik" as a derogatory designation for anything connected to Serbs (rather than a paramilitary as in its standard meaning) has also occurred in modern times, during and after the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s ([5].
Serbs are greatly underrepresented in the Croatian civil service in most areas with a significant Serb population. [6]

An overview of anti-Serbian sentiment in history

Like most other nations, the Serbs have been involved in numerous ideological and/or armed conflicts and have been both prone to and the target of chauvinist sentiment time and time again in history. Thus, during the 19th century, Croatian nationalist polemist Ante Starčević and his followers have expressed certain negative views of the Serb people (see Ante Starčević). As previously noted, anti-Serb jingoism was present e.g. in Austria-Hungary in connection with the conflicts preceding and during World War I. After the war, there were significant ethnic tensions in the newly established Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918-1945), which was dominated by the Serbian nation. During World War II, these tensions culminated, among other things, in the genocidal extermination of Serbs in the short-lived Independent State of Croatia (see Jasenovac concentration camp). In the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945-the 1990s), some of the ethnic problems persisted. A new culmination of ethnic hatred on all sides was reached immediately before, during and after the Yugoslav wars.

Serbophobia in Vojvodina

During the Kuruc War (1703-1711) of Francis II Rakoczi, the territory of present-day Vojvodina was a battlefield between Hungarian rebels and local Serbs who fought on the side of the Habsburg Emperor. Serbs in Bačka suffered the greatest losses.^{[citation needed]}

Hungarian rebels killed many Serbs, burned their villages and expelled many of them from Bačka. Darvas, the prime military commander of the Hungarian rebels, which fought against Serbs in Bačka, wrote: "We burned all large places of Rascia, on the both banks of the rivers Danube and Tisa".^{[citation needed]}

During the 1848-49 revolution Hungarian army killed many Serb civilians included women, children and elder people and burned and destroyed entire Serb cities and villages including Srbobran and Novi Sad, which in that time was a cultural centre of the Serbs and the largest city in the World with Serb majority. These killings was somekind of revenge for the Serb attack of Bácsföldvár (now in Serbian: Bačko Gradište).^[2]

During World War II, Hungarian, German and Croatian fascists killed about 50,000 civilians in Vojvodina, mostly of Jewish, Serb and Roma ethnicity (see: Crimes of the occupiers in Vojvodina, 1941-1944).

A recent attack against Serbs was in Temerin at 26 June 2004, when five young Hungarian men (drug users ^{[citation needed]}) from this town (István Máriás, Zsolt Illés, Árpád Horvát, Zoltán Szakáll, and József Uracs) attacked and tortured Zoran Petrović (drug dealer ^{[citation needed]}), an ethnic Serb from Novi Sad, and almost killed him. They inserted a baseball staff into his anus, which triggered comparisons to a similar event in Kosovo several years ago, when several Albanians inserted a bottle into anus of one Kosovo Serb, which triggered some of the events of the Kosovo conflict. This was interpreted in some media reports as having the symbolic purpose of reminding Serbs of the period of Ottoman rule when many Serbs were executed by being impaled.[7] The five young Hungarian men delivered a penalty prescribed by the law, namely 11 to 15 years of imprisonment. Although, Zoran said that the attack against him had been not triggered by Hungarian nationalistic sentiments and that this had been just an interpersonal conflict, the wall near the place where he was attacked was mottled by irredentist Greater Hungarian graphite: "I believe in one god, I believe in one homeland, I believe in one god's justice, I believe in resurrection of Hungary. Amen". [8] The Serbian Radical Party say that the event is a good example for Serbophobic attacks. ^{[citation needed]}

Criticism

There are people who assert that Serbophobia doesn't exist, and that the term is used as a political tool by Serbs to pin the blame on others for their own wrongdoings. ^{[citation needed]}

Some critics associate the use of the term Serbophobia with the politics of Serbian victimization of late 1980’s and 1990’s as described e.g. here. According to these critics, Serbian nationalist politicians have made associations to Serbian "martyrdom" in history (from the Kosovo battle in 1389 to the genocide during World War II) to justify aggressive Serbian politics of 1980s and 1990s as allegedly exemplified in Slobodan Milošević’s historical speech at Kosovo in 1989. The reaction to the speech as well as the use of the associated term Serbophobia is a matter of heated debate even today.

Rebecca West, a noted and consistent admirer of the Serbs [9], observed in her book Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941) a general tendency: each Balkan nation tends to attract historians, native and foreign, who present it as an "Infant Samuel", a guiltless nation, oppressed by its greedy neighbors and by the Great Powers.

External links

Use in various languages

Neue Serbophilie und alte Serbophobie, "New Serbophilia and Old Serbophobia", a Junge Welt article, in German
Marc Fumaroli, an article from Lire, a French literary magazine, in French
Europa e nuovi nazionalismi, an article by Luca Rastello, in Italian
Бомбы или гражданская война, a Segodnya article, in Russian
Сатанизација Срба, коме она треба?, a book by Boris Olijnik, in Serbian
'СПЦ може да предизвика србофобија кај Македонците, a Nova Makedonija article, in Macedonian
Ku është antimillosheviqi?, an AIM article, in Albanian

References

^ Trifkovic, Srdja (April 13, 2000). "Why Yugo-Nostalgists are Wrong". Chronicles. Retrieved 2006-04-29.
^ http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/cseres/cseres05.htm

[1] Trifkovic, Srdja (April 13, 2000). "Why Yugo-Nostalgists are Wrong". Chronicles. Retrieved 2006-04-29.

[2] ttp://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/cseres/cseres05.htm

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